Carole Lartigue

Dr Carole Lartigue received her doctorate in 2003 from the university Victor Segalen in Bordeaux, France. During her thesis,
in Alain Blanchard's lab (INRA), she developed original molecular tools, required for functional genomics studies for
several mycoplasma species including some of high veterinary importance. In November 2004, Carole joined the J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI) Synthetic Biology team
as a post-doctoral fellow. Under John Glass's supervision, she led the effort to develop genome transplantation methods to install
the genome Mycoplasma mycoides subsp. capri into Mycoplasma capricolum subsp. capricolum recipient cell. Her work was published in Science in 2007
and Carole was promoted to a permanent staff scientist position.

There, she went on to collaborate with Dr Sanjay Vashee in the cloning of the whole M. mycoides genome as a centromeric plasmid in yeast.
While in yeast, they have modified the mycoplasma genome and succeeded the transplantation of the engineered genome back into M. capricolum.
This work was published in Science, in 2009. Because of her outstanding work, she was then promoted assistant professor.
Using genome transplantation technology and genome assembly methods, the synthetic biology team achieved their final goal of creating
a cell controlled by a synthetic genome in May, 2010. Carole has played a role in much of the work of the synthetic biology group.

In 2010, Carole joined Alain Blanchard's lab back where she continues to expand the utility of bacterial genome transplantation in Mycoplasmas
and to understand the mechanism of the process.